Chargers before Olympics, Mr. Mayor

Mayor Bob Filner reaches for Luis Angulo (left), while Enrique Morones of the Border Angels directs Angulo’s daughter Ximena, 5, on the Mexico side. The gate at Friendship Park opened on Sunday for just a few minutes. Peggy Peattie • U-T

Mayor Bob Filner reaches for Luis Angulo (left), while Enrique Morones of the Border Angels directs Angulo’s daughter Ximena, 5, on the Mexico side. The gate at Friendship Park opened on Sunday for just a few minutes. Peggy Peattie • U-T

It is with much reluctance that I question the wisdom or focus of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, given that my bosses love the guy so much.

But, seriously, what is Filner doing spending any time at all championing an Olympics in the region?

Even if we can get past the laughable idea of this county’s civic and business leaders actually getting a project larger than lunch organized, even if we can envision the International Olympic Committee changing its charter to allow a bi-national Games, it just feels a little like Nero laying down tracks while ignoring the flames.

Um, we can’t get find a few hundred million to close the gap in funding for a new Chargers stadium that will provide recurring economic impact, and we’re supposed to believe raising $15 billion (or more, possibly twice as much more) for a one-time event is both feasible and smart.

“If I changed courses every time I heard ‘no,’ I would have accomplished nothing,” Filner said in an e-mail response to a request for comment sent to his press secretary. “I believe in thinking big and have always approached life with a ‘why not’ attitude rather than ‘why.’ “

Bravo. I’m going to frame that quote and put it on my office wall, so when the bosses walk in they can see I’m drawing inspiration from the best possible sources.

Maybe His Honor could put this one from me on his wall:

“Mayor, focus!”

This Olympics stuff just seems like misdirected energy.

Before addressing why that is, however, I must say it is not difficult to embrace Filner’s sentiment -- in general and as it pertains to the Olympics.

Even the Brits who lament the cost overruns (like quadruple the original budget) for last summer’s London Games overwhelmingly agree hosting the Olympiad was a boon for national pride.

The Olympics are fantastic. I’m looking forward to covering my first Games in February in Russia. They make us feel good. Few things can make us appreciate agony and ecstasy like the Olympics, and they do so while simultaneously galvanizing national pride and allowing us to admire the feats of athletes from all over the world.

But we don’t need to foot the bill.

Beyond that, we’re not going to get the opportunity.

The San Diego-Tijuana venture has no chance of landing the 2024 Summer Games, something even Filner and other local minds seem to have at least subliminally acknowledged in their remarks the past couple months.

We don’t have the infrastructure, the type of political and business will it would require has been lacking here for decades, and we are suggesting something that would require the IOC to change its very constitution to allow multiple countries to co-host a summer Olympiad.

But, all that said, the bigger issue here is Filner’s energy going toward getting San Diego into an arranged marriage with the IOC when the most enduring source of pride (and anguish) in this town is slipping away.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, the Chargers have been waiting for a ring. Let’s check into Hotel Reality and get this sucker consummated rather than sneaking off to the Holiday Insane for a fantasy dalliance with the United States Olympic Committee, which is almost certainly using you to make San Francisco jealous.